Focus on ripening older fruits

Pollination is not an issue anymore at Ghost House Farm! 4 new fruits per plant this week. Which is above the target of 3 new fruits.

The newly set fruits are increasing the total fruit load that now reaches the target area. But there is one thing to look out for: exhaustion.

The oldest fruits of the plant took too much time to set, and the new ones are very quick. Also, if plants continue to grow one cluster each week, they might get too much fruit before the real harvest begins.

A heavy fruit load, warm summer weather, and less sunshine from wildfire smoke will exhaust plants. The stem will shrink smaller than an AA battery. Plants won’t have enough energy to sustain fruits + growth. This is how plants turn leggy and start to abort flowers in July. 

This is to be taken seriously since blossom dropping in July means very little harvest in fall. Which represents around 30% of the total yield potential of the season.

Recommandation

The focus should be put on ripening the older fruits as quickly as possible. For that, they need sunlight to warm up. 

We give them more sunlight by pruning intentionally. We need to prune “in the plant”: the leaves that shade the first 3 clusters. That does not mean you need to take out a lot of leaves, though. Only 3 or 4 that shade the lower clusters.

The good thing:

Allison and Drew have already pruned in the plant. Their intention was to take out leaves that showed signs of leaf mold, though. The pruned leaves might not have shaded the lower cluster directly. Still, they will let in more light for the plant.

We are looking forward to seeing the results of the harvest. Fruits look delicious!

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